Lisa Brown was very thoughtful in selecting to move into the Scotch 80s neighborhood. Her home on Bannie Street was built in 1959 and is an example of the popular midcentury modern design. The Scotch 80s is snug in its matured landscaping. At the same time, Lisa describes a view of the Stratosphere from her backyard. Her neighbors represent a list of longtime residents (across the street neighbors Carolyn and Oscar Goodman—current and former Las Vegas mayors). Lisa Brown, who has lived in Las Vegas two times since 1996 and continuously for the past eleven years, talks about the decision to relocate from guard-gated Henderson communities. Though her friends questioned why, she firmly believes that she has found the place she will live for decades to come. In 2010, Lisa began an over one-year renovation of the house. Working as her own contractor and using local design experts, she was adamant about preserving the essence of the house’s architectural design. She is only the third owner of the property and felt a responsibility to maintain a connection to the house’s previous owners. She shares anecdotes of how she did that, how she maintained the original footprint and only added a few square feet.

Margaret Ostler Stout-Hall’s personality shines in this interview, in which she discusses growing up in Las Vegas’s Rancho Circle. She moved to Las Vegas with her family in 1951, when she was twelve and her father bought Las Vegas’s Seven-Up Bottling Company. She immediately found friends at John S. Park Elementary School and later at Las Vegas High School, where she became a Rhythmette. Margaret describes her Rancho Circle neighborhood, dragging Fremont Street, working at the El Portal Theater, and dancing at the Wildcat Lair. As a Rhythmette, she traveled to New York and Philadelphia to perform on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and the Elks National Convention. Stout-Hall credits Rhythmette advisor, Evelyn Stuckey, for developing a sense of confidence, belonging, and responsibility in the young women she led. It was this confidence that enabled Margaret to go to work for Harry Reid after she suffered a tragic loss. Former Rhythmettes honored Stuckey by lobbying the Clark County School District to name a school after their former mentor; the school opened in 2010.

Linda Falba McSweeney’s memories read like a Las Vegas history book. Arriving in town as a five-year-old in 1950, Linda’s family lived in the Huntridge area of town. Her father was a casino manager in various properties Downtown and on the Strip and even worked in Cuba during the Batista era. She and her two siblings attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School, St. Anne’s School, and Bishop Gorman High School. They marched in the city’s Helldorado Parades, and she was a BGHS cheerleader. Through it all their parents (even Dad, who worked graveyard shifts and seldom took a day off) enthusiastically supported all their endeavors and attended all their events. Linda tells of playing at Maryland Parkway’s circle park and earning a black eye from the cutest boy in the neighborhood; she recalls making forts in the bamboo forest near Fifteenth Street and Oakey Boulevard (until two schoolmates, who didn’t know how to stub out their illicit cigarettes, burned the bamboo forest down). Linda knows most of Nevada’s movers and shakers because she played with them or with their children.

Jerry Tarkanian, legendary and formidable basketball coach, met his match the day he was called before student court at Fresno State College and had to face as one of his judges Lois Esther Huter. Lois, a no-nonsense military daughter, eventually agreed to date Tarkanian and to marry him. The City of Las Vegas got lucky when UNLV recruited Lois’s husband as basketball coach. After picking cotton in California’s Central Valley Lois earned her Master’s degree in speech pathology and holds national certifications in speech pathology, language, and audiology. In 1969 she opened California’s first private day school for the hearing impaired, Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired in Whittier. In Las Vegas she taught hearing-impaired children in her home on an individual and pro-bono basis. In this interview Lois recalls her teaching career, debates in deaf education, her 12 years on Clark County School District School Board, and the people and the neighborhoods that make up Las Vegas’s Ward 1, the area she has represented on the Las Vegas City Council continuously since 2005.

Plans for the construction of the Showboat Hotel Casino in Atlantic City from 1985. Parchment copy.
Site Name: Showboat Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City)
Address: 801 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ

Latest Drawing Revision: 1985-07-22

Professor Douglas Reynolds joined the engineering faculty in 1983. His credentials include a B.S. from Michigan State, M.S in mechanical engineering from Purdue, and a PhD in the same field, also from Purdue. Dr. Reynolds' work experience includes an assistant professorship at University of Texas a Austin (architectural engineering), associate professor in mechanical engineering at University of Pittsburgh, and a stint of industrial experience working for Caterpillar Tractor Company. He also worked as an acoustical consultant in Dallas, Texas. When interviewed at UNLV, Doug sensed that this was an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new engineering program and really have an impact on its development. He worked on the Engineering Advisory Committee and was given the task to justify the existence and growth of the engineering program at UNLV. He presented a report which documented the size and cost of the engineering building, and that report led to the existence of the building that can be found on campus today. With the building under construction, the engineering program itself needed accreditation with the American Board of Engineering and Technology. Dr Reynolds was responsible for documenting past, present, and future plans for the department courses and degrees. He also had to document a legitimate student graduation in order to apply tor accreditation. All this was accomplished in a short time, and the school received a very high evaluation. Dr. Reynolds' primary specialty is mechanical vibration and acoustics. He teaches machine design, kinematics and dynamics, and courses in mechanical vibration and acoustics. He wrote a textbook in the early 80's, "Engineering Principles of Acoustics." The updated revision will be completed soon, and he is also writing a new text entitled "Engineering Principles of Vibration". Douglas is chief U.S. delegate and chairman of the U.S. technical advisory group for ISO (International Standards Organization). He logs thousands of air miles every year on trips that are basically directed to research, bringing in research dollars, or are related to the standards work he does. His efforts on such a broad scale bring the UNLV engineering school national and worldwide exposure.